


telling the species of tropical fish

by SerpentineJ



Category: DAYS (Anime & Manga)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-14 01:08:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9150061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerpentineJ/pseuds/SerpentineJ
Summary: After the loss to Saku High, nobody can find Ooshiba or Kimishita.





	

**Author's Note:**

> ORIGINAL NOTE (written whenever i wrote this fic?): hi yes this fic is bad and ooc. look they cant fight ALL the time
> 
> CURRENT NOTE: what the fcuk is this? i wrote it months ago??? when this ep came out? @ my inconsistent ass i didnt even remember what this was

Aftermath.

The air feels heavy.

Ooshiba knows the third-years have gone to the dorms. They'll drink soda and laugh, he knows, because that's what they do- maybe Haibara will cry as the night gets later, fat tears rolling down his round cheeks. Inohara will probably put a hand on his shoulder. He doesn't even want to think about the conversation Mizuki and Kasahara are having right now.

He breathes. In, out. Slowly.

~~~~~~

Kimishita can't think.

He arrives home. His old man doesn't ask him how the game went- he can tell from the set of his shoulders and the grimace on his face, by the way he goes to his room without saying anything. 

Kimishita lies down on his back, facing the ceiling.

He feels numb.

~~~~~~

An hour later- an hour of doing nothing, of breathing and staring- he feels some sense of normalcy return to his limbs, chase away the strange out-of-body experience he's been having, replace it with a sense of frustration and sick and failure. This has been, he thinks, a personal failure. The way that the feeling curdles in his gut confirms it. 

If Indou had been Seiseki's midfielder instead of him...

He gets up in a rush. Suddenly, Kimishita stumbles upwards, getting the urge to do something- he starts to crave the rush of adrenaline. There's no point in staying here forever, he thinks.

"Dad!" He shouts, though it feels more forced than usual. "I'm going to a classmate's house."

His dad looks up from where he's sitting at the general room table, cross-legged, glasses perched on the edge of his nose, pen in hand. It looks like he's tallying today's sales.

"This late?" He sighs, knowing there's really nothing to worry about. "Don't spend too long outside."

"Yeah." He says, opening the door.

~~~~~~

"Oh, Kimishita-kun." Ooshiba's sister. "You're looking for Kiichi?"

"Yeah." Kimishita sticks his hands in his pockets- it's spring, and the nights are warm, so he attributes his rising body temperature to the fact that he'd walked the entire way here. "Is he in?"

She sighs, put-upon.

"No, sorry." She replies. "He dropped his stuff off after he came back from the match, and immediately stormed off again..."

Kimishita rolls his eyes.

"That idiot." He mutters.

Ooshiba's sister shakes her head.

"No, are you alright?" She asks, looking at him. "That game..."

Kimishita scowls, but fixes his expression in the face of her legitimate concern. She's really a very good person, and they actually get along rather well- if there's anyone who's going to continue the Ooshiba family name as a doctor, it's her. It's not her fault her brother's a massive narcissist.

"I'm alright." He sighs. "Thanks. Have a good night."

She waves.

"You too." She says, before shutting the door.

Kimishita turns away from the house.

"Where..." He trails off. 

~~~~~~

He walks rather aimlessly down the road for a few minutes before remembering.

"That dumbass." He sighs, and turns his feet back towards the school.

~~~~~~

Ooshiba stares at the wall of blue before him.

This place always calms him- though no way in hell would he tell anyone that- and he stares at the slowly moving figures he can see, mindlessly naming them. The carpet is rough against his palms and under the seat of his jeans. He's sat on the floor, facing the enormous fishtank, watching their brightly-coloured fins sway in the water.

~~~~~~

Is it possible...?

Kimishita pushes the door to the aquarium. As he thought, it's unlocked.

He steps inside.

His feet take him automatically to where he needs to go- he doesn't even need to read the signs on the wall that point him, in bright lettering, to the tropical fish exhibit.

~~~~~~

"Hey."

Ooshiba starts.

It's a voice he recognises, though, so he doesn't turn around.

"What are you doing here?" He says instead, but can't seem to muster any of his usual antagonism. His brain feels sluggish. His limbs feel like lead.

Kimishita walks into his peripheral vision. His silhouette is black against the blue glow of the tank.

"You still have the keys to this place?" He avoids the question. 

Ooshiba shrugs.

"It's a wonder what a life membership and a relationship with the janitor can get you." He replies.

Kimishita scoffs. It echoes.

They're both silent.

"Why are you here?" Ooshiba asks again.

Kimishita shrugs. It's so unlike him Ooshiba is taken aback.

"It's almost midnight." He says instead of answering. "Your sister's worried."

Ooshiba laughs. It's hollow.

"How did you know I'd be here?" He doesn't know if he'll even get an answer out of Kimishita. 

Kimishita turns infinitesimally toward him.

Ooshiba decides he doesn't care.

"Whatever." He sighs, looking away. It doesn't look like Kimishita plans on talking. "Get out of here."

Kimishita's silhouette doesn't move.

"I... can't." He says, something different about his voice, like someone's dropped a weight on his vocal chords and they're straining to make sound.

Ooshiba frowns.

"I'm night-blind, you idiot." Kimishita mutters.

Ooshiba blinks.

"...then why the hell did you come in here?" He asks, bewildered.

Kimishita turns to face away from him.

"I don't know." He finally replies. "An impulse."

Ooshiba watches. Kimishita seems frozen. The only noise in the room is the hum of the lights and filters in the tank and their breathing.

He stands up.

Kimishita stiffens. 

"Can you see anything?" Ooshiba asks, curious.

"Not really." Kimishita might have rolled his eyes. Ooshiba can't tell. "That's what night-blindness is, idiot."

Ooshiba grabs his hand.

Kimishita literally jumps- his arm jerks, and Ooshiba holds on tight so he doesn't shake him off in surprise.

"Sit down, dumbass." Ooshiba mutters. "You're gonna trip."

He leads him to a bench in front of the giant fishtank wall, setting his hand on top of it, watching as Kimishita seems to feel his way onto it- this is incredibly strange. Kimishita has always been infallable.

What's going on?

Ooshiba sits beside him and stares at the fish.

Kimishita squints at him. By now, his eyes have adjusted, and he can see the vague outline of Ooshiba's face, illuminated by the blue light from the tank.

"Do you think," Ooshiba breaks the silence, "we could have won... if I hadn't been switched out?"

Kimishita blinks.

"That's a surprising amount of actual thought coming from you." He remarks. Ooshiba doesn't glare at him, probably because he thinks he can't see at all. 

It's quiet.

"Maybe."

Ooshiba clutches his hands together in front of him, elbows propped up on his knees.

"But," Kimishita continues, "that's like asking if we could have won if Indou were Seiseki's midfielder instead of me."

Ooshiba does look at him now. Kimishita can't seen the expression on his face. 

"That's pretty dumb." Ooshiba says bluntly, automatically. Kimishita exhales, surprised- he didn't expect something like that. "You're an asshole, Kimishita, but you're a good midfielder."

The tone of his voice is alarmingly honest. Kimishita looks away. His face feels hot.

What was he trying to accomplish, coming here?

~~~~~~

They sit in the aquarium for- how long, Ooshiba doesn't know.

At some point, his ears start to ache from the silence, so he stands up abruptly, grabs Kimishita's wrist.

"I'm hungry." He announces. "Let's go get food."

Kimishita tries halfheartedly to pull his arm out of Ooshiba's grip, but when Ooshiba starts to slacken his fingers, he stops, as though he doesn't actually want the other man's fingers to unwrap from around his wrist.

"Fine." He sighs. "If there's anywhere still open."

Kimishita feels Ooshiba shrug.

"There's always the 24 hour convenience store." He says, and looks back at Kimishita. "Can you see?"

Kimishita glares at where his vague approximation of Ooshiba's face floats.

"Not really." He reiterates. "Do I need to look up the definition of 'night-blindness' for you, you idiot?"

Ooshiba grumbles.

"Don't bitch at me." He mutters, pulling Kimishita's arm surprisingly gently, leading him toward the door. "You're the dumbass who followed me into somewhere you can't even see."

Kimishita tries to retaliate, but he can't do much without being either able to see or explain- why the hell had he followed Kiichi in here, anyways?

This isn't the time to be thinking about that, he tells himself, partly to avoid the answer.

~~~~~~

Kimishita lets out an audible sigh of relief when the cheap fluorescent lights in the aquarium hallway illuminates his vision, floods his senses. 

Ooshiba glances at him.

"You're really night-blind, huh." He remarks. 

Kimishita rolls his eyes.

"You think I'd lie about something like that?" He scoffs in disbelief. "You really are a moron."

They bicker, and it feels... as close to normal as anything can in this moment in time, even though it feels a little bit like they're talking through water, can't summon their usual antagonism. If anything, their arguing would pass for a friendly squabble instead of the antics of two longtime rivals.

(The part that's not normal is that Ooshiba hasn't let go of his wrist.)

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: talk to me on [tumblr!](http://www.serpentinej.tumblr.com) join the [shibakimi/days discord chat.](https://discord.gg/CpK2RHv) i compel you.


End file.
